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Bengals Defense at Home is Dominant

As I was watching the Broncos-Chiefs game last night, I came across this tweet. I though to myself, those numbers sound really impressive, let me see which QBs the Cincinnati Bengals have played at home over the last two seasons. Already knowing that 6 of those games were going to be against Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco and who ever the Browns started at QB that day, I was surprised to see Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning and Matt Ryan were all on that list.

The Bengals have allowed just 19 pass TDs with 28 INTs in their last 16 regular-season home games. Tough test for Philip Rivers and Co.

Let's start with the bad - Andrew Luck beat them up pretty bad, on paper. 4 touchdowns, 326 passing yards and 29 completions. However, the Bengals won that game 42-28. The only other QB to throw for more than 2 TDs was Big Ben, and the Steelers handed the Bengals a loss that day. So those two games alone are 7 TDs to 0 INTs.

In Ben's other start at Cincy, he went 20 of 37 for 251 with 1 TD and 1 INT.

That means in 14 of the last 16 regular season games, at home at Paul Brown Stadium, the Bengals defense has allowed just 12 passing touchdowns and recorded 28 interceptions!

Peyton Manning is the only other QB to have thrown for 300 yards on the Bengals, but was picked off 4 times! This defense held Tom Brady to just 197 passing yards and picked him off twice, shutting him out. He completed just 47% of his pass attempts.

Cam Newton totaled 391 yards, including 107 rushing (including a TD).

When the Bengals beat the Packers 34-30, Aaron Rodgers was limited to just 244 yards and threw 2 interceptions to 1 touchdown.

Joe Flacco's last two games at Paul Brown have produced the following average stats:

With Philip Rivers
coming to town, fantasy owners might want to reconsider starting him against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Sure, the Bengals allowed Marcel Reece to catch two touchdowns out of the backfield, but it was a blow out. Can't predict garbage time stats. Latavius Murray totaled 80 yards including 36 receiving yards on 7 receptions.

Last year, Le'Veon Bell was the only RB to gain 100 rushing yards against the Bengals at home. He scored three times (1 rec) and racked up 235 total yards. Denard Robinson, Terrance West and C.J. Anderson were the only other backs to gain at least 69 yards. Should be noted those all came in the final 4 home games. They allowed all three Browns RBs to score in Week 10. Maybe there is some hope for Gordon/Woodhead. I would leave them in your lineup.

The Bengals defense was not the same at the end of last season, allowing four 100 yard receivers in their final 4 home games. Allen Hurns in Week 9 put up 112 yards and scored twice, Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant totaled 226 yards, Bryant scored a TD and Demaryius Thomas caught 7 passes for 115 yards in Week 16. Julio Jones and Emmanuel Sanders were the only other receivers to gain 70+ yards against Cincy at Paul Brown Stadium. Keenan Allen is going to see a ton of targets but I would not expect him to have double digit receptions or triple digit yardage again.